Volume 3 Part 18



I got tired of the pointless conversation with Prince Heath, so I flopped down on my bed, which I usually use, and looked at the three faces in the room.

Iris, the valedictorian of the Royal Officer Academy.Safran, a former assassin.

Heath, the foolish prince.

"So, everyone here wants to help Instructor Cattleya. Can I assume you're all willing to cooperate with my plan?"

"Yes. You are my lifesaver. I believe Instructor Cattleya can be saved by you," said Iris.

"I'll follow too. I know Crow's strategies never miss," Safran added.

Iris and Safran seemed to hold a fervent trust in me.

However,

"Hold on, Crow. Something's been bothering me," interjected Prince Heath, clearly disgruntled.

"What now, annoying as always. If you have a complaint, just leave."

"No! For once, I'm fully prepared to follow your lead."

"Really? Why?"

"Because... I didn't believe your story before and suffered terribly for it. When you were to be executed, I didn't let Shion touch the Holy Light Sword. Just because of that, I ended up gravely injured for six months, and the royal capital was nearly destroyed. It was all my fault."

"That's right. Everything was your fault. You were the root of all evil, no exaggeration. It was all on you."

"…You're just too harsh with me…"

"So, you've decided to fully trust my judgment after reflecting on that incident?"

"Yes, exactly. There must be some significant reason why a spirit, supposedly visible only to the hero, can be seen by you. I'll trust your decishions."

"Okay. Then hand over all your gold to me and disappear from my sight."

"Why are you so extreme with me!"

"Alright, enough. Talking with you always drags on. Let's stop."

"You're the one making useless talk!"

"So? What's bothering you? I appreciate your willingness to trust me, but I haven't actually said anything yet, have I?"

"Oh, right. I'm willing to cooperate with you all to save Instructor Cattleya, but who is this maid that's been with us since earlier?"

"Oh, you mean Safran…"

Safran has been acting in her role as a maid and, ostensibly, as Shion's caretaker.Safran's identity as a former assassin and a Saintly Sword bearer was kept secret.

To Heath, she would appear as just a maid.

But what to do? Currently, Safran is an invaluable asset. Her true strength is best utilized when no one knows her capabilities. Unlike Iris and Instructor Cattleya, whose status as Saintly Sword bearers is known, Safran's is not. Ideally, I'd prefer to keep it that way, especially from royalty and nobility. It's better if they don't know we have someone who can turn invisible on our side.

If I could trust Heath as a true ally, I wouldn't mind telling him.

"Safran, huh. In terms of strength, she's about a hundred times stronger than you, and probably five hundred times more popular. That's the kind of maid she is."

"What!?"

"She's incredibly strong."

"That maid? I can't believe it."

At that moment, Safran disappeared.

"Hey! What are you doing!?"

Before I could stop her, Safran held her Vacuum Sword to Prince Heath's neck.

"Crow, I'm really annoyed by this foolish prince. Can I kill him?"

"Of course not! Stop it!"

"But he's so irritating with his condescending attitude."

"Just let it go. He's always been like that, looking down on others."

"If you say so, Crow. But if there's a chance, wouldn't it be better to just kill him? Especially a royal with a Saintly Sword."

Saying so, Safran backed off and stood next to Iris.

Left on his own, a sweating Heath approached me and whispered.

"What's with her!"

"She's just like that."

"What kind of person is that! And that was clearly the power of a Saintly Sword, right?"

"Yeah, she has one too."

"A Saintly Sword bearer that the royal family doesn't know about? Are you planning to keep this a secret from them, Crow?"

"I could tell them, but if someone snitches, they might end up dead."

"Alright, I didn't see anything. It's better for you if it stays that way, right?"

Just like that, Safran's secret of being a Saintly Sword bearer was exposed in an instant."Well, as long as we can save Instructor Cattleya, anything else doesn't really matter, right? What do you guys think we should do?"

"Why not just kill everyone trying to kill Cattleya? Wouldn't that be easier?" Safran suggested, a bit too casually.

To my surprise, Iris, sitting with her arms crossed, agreed, "I also feel that might be our only option."

"What are you guys even saying? Are you suggesting we don't just resolve the attempted assassination of the King, but actually go through with it and overthrow the government? We can't do that with just the people here. Besides, Prince Heath will never agree to this."

As expected, Heath's face was twitching in shock.

"If you're ready, Crow, I'll help in any way I can. Frankly, I have no qualms about destroying those who just use Instructor Cattleya and then easily discard her. It's time we settled this, Crow."

"So, if that foolish prince isn't going to help, why not just silence him? Should I kill him now?"

Faced with Iris and Safran's remarks, I sighed deeply.

"Don't you guys even think about finding the real perpetrator? I know it won't be easy to find them conveniently."

That's right. We should be trying to uncover the real culprit behind the assassination attempt.The fundamental issue with this case is clear.

To prove Instructor Cattleya's innocence, we need to find and apprehend a new culprit.

But realistically, accomplishing this conveniently is impossible.

Even if we scoured aimlessly, finding the perpetrator who tried to assassinate the king and caused an exploshion in the castle is unlikely.

Even if we miraculously found another Saintly Sword wielder, there’s no way to conclusively prove their guilt.

In essence, to prove Instructor Cattleya's innocence, the new culprit would need to come forward and confess, "I attempted to kill the king," which is highly unlikely.

And here we are, a group with abnormal combat abilities but slightly twisted thought processes, chatting away. We can't exactly come up with a brilliant deduction to solve this case.

"...Looks like we might as well give up on proving Cattleya Instructor’s innocence."

The moment I said that, the entire room froze over.

A chilling cold enveloped the room.

At the center of this cold, Iris glared at me with a demonic expresshion.

"What? What did you just say?"

"...Listen, Iris. Stop getting angry over every little thing I say. I said we should give up on proving Instructor Cattleya’s innocence, not on saving her life."

"What do you mean?"

"The best outcome of this situation would be for the king to believe in Instructor Cattleya’s innocence and cancel the execution. But that’s unlikely. Catching the new culprit is also difficult. Actually, it's just a hassle. To find and capture the real culprit all by ourselves and report it. So, let’s just save Instructor Cattleya’s life without proving her innocence."

"...?"

"For now, Heath, stop trying to persuade the king and just proceed with Instructor Cattleya’s execution."

"What!? Both Iris and Heath were stunned, their voices overlapping in unison.

With the room returning to normal temperature, I lay down on the bed and started explaining.

"When Instructor Cattleya is taken to the execution site, Safran can use her invisibility to kidnap her before the execution takes place."

"Me, kidnap Cattleya?"

"Yeah. Since anyone Safran touches becomes invisible, to outsiders, it will just look like Instructor Cattleya vanished suddenly. Ordinary people won’t understand how she disappeared. This way, at least her life is saved. That's all."

"Wait a minute, Crow."

Iris seemed skeptical about my seemingly flawless plan."If we go by that plan, Instructor Cattleya will end up leading a life on the run," Iris pointed out. "Are you suggesting she should keep hiding forever?"

"Well, I was thinking of giving her a place to hide once I receive some land as a reward for my achievements, but since I don't know when that will be... How about we just fake her death?"

If you see any serious issues in the translations you can contact me on d3adlyjoker@yahoo.dk and I will take a look.